(COLOMBO) – Iranian President Dr. Ebrahim Raisi is scheduled to make an official two-day bilateral visit to Sri Lanka on Wednesday, officials with the Foreign Ministry in Colombo said.
His visit comes following an invitation from Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Iranian counterparty will jointly declare open an irrigation project on April 24.
Known as the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project it was funded by Sri Lanka and Iran and designed to generate and add 120 Megawatts of electricity to Sri Lanka’s national grid and provide irrigation to approximately 25,000 acres of paddy lands in the south-eastern part of Sri Lanka.
The project was officially launched in 2010, at an estimated cost of US$ 514 million.
The visit also comes after Arab nations have expressed concern over the island-nation’s closeness to Israel even though Colombo has repeatedly maintained its position of a two-state policy to the Palestine question.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out Sri Lanka has sent thousands of workers to the Jewish State to be employed in the construction and agriculture sectors and even opened an additional diplomatic mission in that country.
